Peasants, Capitalists and the State: Mexico's Changing Agricultural Policies and the "Hungarian Project"

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Peasants, Capitalists and the State: Mexico's Changing Agricultural Policies and the "Hungarian Project"

Author(s)

Wessman, James W.

Abstract

In the twentieth century a distinctive relationship has existed between the Mexican state and the country's peasantry. Since the ejido was established as a legal person in the Mexican constitution of 1917, the state has taken the responsibility for directing the fortunes of those peasants who
obtained usufruct rights over land in the agrarian reform which followed the Mexican Revolution. The policies which the Mexican state has pursued for the ejido have suffered
severe problems, including peasant resistance, bureaucratic inefficiencies and corruption, entrepreneurial speculation,
private landowners' interference and international market fluctuations, among others. During most of the twentieth century, however, Mexicans managed to feed themselves and to produce a surplus for export to other countries, primarily the United States.